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Sadaharu Inui
Sadaharu Inui is a 3rd-year student and regular member of the Seigaku tennis team. He is an intelligent player and is best known for collecting player data, which he incorporates into a unique playing style known as "Data Tennis". Background Four years prior to the start of the series, Inui and Yanagi Renji were an unstoppable Elementary School Doubles Pairing. Despite Inui wanting to continue their close partnership, their doubles pairing was ended when Yanagi suddenly moved to the Kanagawa Prefecture and joined Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku. Before Echizen Ryoma's arrival at Seigaku, Inui was recognised as the third-strongest player on the team, next to Fuji Shūsuke and Tezuka Kunimitsu. Inui has an intense rivalry with Tezuka, having played at least 30 matches against him and losing every single one of them. In response to Tezuka's superiority, Inui began developing his style of Data Tennis specifically to defeat Tezuka. Despite being in the regular lineup for six months, Inui was beaten by Ryoma in the intra-school ranking tournament, and then lost to Kaidō Kaoru (who had also been beaten earlier by Echizen and was determined not to lose his spot) at the beginning of the series. He later became the team's manager. He uses his data to create exercise programs for the team. Eventually, Inui is able to make it back as a regular by using the data he obtained over the time he was manager, defeating Momohsiro Takeshi to regain his spot in the regulars. Despite his guaranteed spot, he played a tough match against the undefeated Tezuka and again lost to his captain. Nonetheless, Inui is enthusiastic about regaining his spot on the team, and is eager to practice with his teammates and resume his data-gathering. While he is a very good singles player, Inui usually plays doubles with various partners, most notably his protegé Kaidō Kaoru. His doubling with Kaidō helped Seigaku overcome their problems with their lack of strong doubles teams, with the exception of the Golden Pair. Personality Inui is quite intelligent, proven by his playing style. He is also hardworking, proven by his quick improvement during the timespan between the Prefectuals and the Kantō arcs. Due to his falling out as a regular, he took on a training regimen which was 2.25 times harder than Kaidō's, whose training regimen was already 3 times harder than his fellow teammates. However, he does have his quirks, just like the rest of the team. One of Inui's most notable traits is his penchant to brew horrible vegetable juices (named "Inui Juices"), which he uses mostly in practice as punishment for players who fail the training menus. Only he and Fuji dare to drink, although Tezuka is (seemingly) unaffected by his drinks. However, he flatly refuses any attempts by Inui to drink the vile drink. Running jokes in the anime include other characters getting a look at Inui's eyes behind his glasses, his tendency to surprise others by appearing behind them unannounced, and various situations involving Inui Juice. Ryoma was once caught by Inui when they went on a training camp before the match with Rikkai; also, Inui was not wearing his glasses while sleeping, but when he rolled over, Ryoma sees that Inui is wearing a blindfold. Another one is to have Inui attempt to use his data and maths formulas to cheat at other games (for example: Bowling or Billiard), only to fail, although in the anime he managed to win a baseball game using his data. Running jokes in the manga, include Inui attempting to escape a punishment he cannot take, and the result is usually something worse, like getting his pants pulled down. An example is in his avoidance of the "Silver Seat", by taking a hit to the face with a volleyball, his partner, Kisarazu Ryō says he's unfair, but by trying to pull him down by grabbing his clothes, he inadvertently leaves him to a worse fate of getting his swim trunks pulled off. Also in episode 20 in the OVA, Inui boasted about Chateu-Briand, a meat found in the cow's belly. But when Atobe Keigo's Insight saw that the meat was an imposter, he said that Inui said a false data''and the fact that Inui never had the meat, making Kawamura Takashi, Kaidō Kaoru and Ryoma Echizen mad at him.When he realized that the ''real data is in Atobe's lips, he stood on the table and said Give me data.. eventually slipped on the table, making Tezuka accidentally pull his pants off and landed on the grill Inui often spies on his teammates outside of school or practice, such as the time when Ann Tachibana took Momoshiro on a tennis date, or when Kawamura went on a "date" with Akutsu Jin's mother Yūki, whom everyone mistook for his girlfriend since she was a beautiful and very young-looking woman. He also stalks people from other teams, like when he spied on the Ginka team right after Ryoma Echizen defeated them to rescue Sakuno Ryūzaki from their bullying. He even does this in the last episode of the manga, where he spies on Fuji teasing Tezuka. He is usually seen carrying a notebook around, in which he scribbles all the data he has gathered -- including personal data. After winning the Nationals with Seishun Gakuen Inui and the other 8 regulars of Seigaku are invited to Japan's U-17 training camp. While there he partners with fellow Data Tennis player Mizuki Hajime believing they are a doubles team however the announcer at the camp, suddenly declares all pairs to play each other in a tie-break where the loser must leave the camp. However Inui miscalculates an ingredient in his Juice and immediately rushes to the toilet and forfeits the tie-break. This meant Inui had to train up in the mountains with all the othe middle schoolers that lost their tie-break games. Afterwards, all 27 middle schoolers that los their tie-breaks arrive back to the U-17 camp and defeat he 8 original members of the 2nd Court and become the new 2nd Court. Making Inui currently a member of the 2nd Court. Playing Style and Techniques Inui uses a serve-and-volley tactic, preferring the net over the baseline. Inui has a distinct lack of special techniques in his play, but he makes up for this by using his unique style of play, known as Data Tennis. His serve, height and his data allows full control in his net play. Inui's data-based style of play was inspired by his childhood friend, Yanagi Renji. Originally, one of his weaknesses was the inability to keep up with the speed of the data, as shown against Ryoma and Kaidō. However, after an extensive training regimen (which was 2.25 times greater than Kaidō's, who already had a training regimen 3 times tougher than his teammates), he was able to overcome this weakness and improved his data even further. (データテニス):A style of tennis based on data gathered on the opponents, by using his extensive research of opponents, Inui is able to mentally simulate the course of the match. Not only can he quickly calculate the probability of a shot, he shows a sharp understanding of player psychology and is able to observe even the slightest movements. Inui uses this data as a weapon to control the match from the beginning. In the intra-school ranking match against Tezuka, Inui overcomes Tezuka's mind games and accurately calculates the chances of Tezuka's drop shot. Furthermore, Inui identifies that Tezuka lowers his racket by 3.2mm before hitting the drop shot, distinguishing it clearly from Tezuka's regular technique. :Inui's Data Tennis has the distinct weakness of not being able to predict changes during the game itself. Inui loses against Ryoma and Tezuka after they displayed their true strengths and used techniques that he had never encountered before. He also has difficulty gathering data for players with abnormal abilities, such as Akutsu Jin, as well as players who hide their abilities, like Fuji. Coach Ryūzaki identifies that while Inui is able to predict the outcome of a game, he was unable to win because he lacked the strength and speed to use his data. As a result, Inui trained harder than the Seigaku regulars and was recognised as having much greater strength upon his return to the regular lineup. :Inui is also aware of these limitations. While he confidently states that "data does not lie", he occasionally berates other players for sticking too closely to data and not understanding the human element of the game, such as St.Rudolph's Mizuki Hajime's humiliating defeat at the hands of Shūsuke Fuji. During the Kantō Finals Singles 3 match against Rikkai Dai, Inui temporarily throws away his data while playing against Renji in order to defeat his opponent's Data Tennis. ;Super Sonic Serve (超高速サーブ) :A high-speed serve that is difficult to return, it was originally simply called the 'Sonic Serve' or just a 'high-speed serve' (高速サーブ). However, after his training, the serve got faster and earned the name of 'Super Sonic Serve.' The record from this serve was 192 km/h. Waterfall (ウォーターフォール) :Inui took his Super Sonic Serve even further and improved the speed to 212 km/h in the National Quarterfinals against Hyōtei in Doubles 2, which surpassed Ootori Chōtarō's Scud Serve and set the new record for the fastest serve in the tournament. However, the record was broken by Ootori Neo Scud Serve at 215 km/h. Its arc and descent resemble that of a waterfall. As shown during the National Finals Doubles 2 match against the Kirihara/Yanagi pair, the Waterfall can be used with spin to achieve a different trajectory. :It was not named by Inui himself, he had overheard the description of his serve by Katō Katsuro as resembling a waterfall the engulfs the opponent. It was first seen in the national championship against Hyōtei Gakuen in Doubles 2. ;Rising Shot (anime only) :A half-volley where the user immediately hit the ball after bouncing, Inui used this in his Singles 3 match with Yanagi Renji of Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku during the Kantō Finals after 'throwing away his data.' ;Jack Knife (anime only) :The Jack Knife is a fast, sharp and powerful high-leveled backhand shot made by using the front foot to jump into the air with balance while utilizing a pendulum-like effect of the body to achieve maximum strength. Originally used by teammate Momoshiro Takeshi, Inui used this in his Singles 3 match with Yanagi Renji of Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku during the Kantō Finals after 'throwing away his data.' Inui Juice Inui created several Inui Juices as punishment for his teammate's failures. The Progression of Inui Juices throughout the anime series is: *Inui Special Vegetable Juice //episode 9 *Inui Juice Deluxe //episode 23 *Golden Power Remix Inui Juice //episode 23 *Penal-Tea //episode 38 *Improved Penal-Tea //episode 39 *Special Improved Deluxe Penal Tea //episode 39 *Inui Juice Special High Grade Deluxe //episode 53 *Inui Hyper Remix Juice //episode 64 *Revised Special Golden Power Remix Inui-juice Neo *Aozu (blue vinegar) //episode 87 - Prince of Bowling(All team members fall to this brew, including, for the first time, Inui and Fuji) *Akazu (red vinegar) //episode 87 - Prince of Bowling *Improved Akazu (dark reddish violet vinagar) // episode 98 - Prince of Billiards *Super Royal Inui Juice Z (combination of Aozu and Akazu) //episode 98 - Prince of Billiards (Marvelous Surprise Inui Juice Excellent // OVA - A Day on Survival Mountain *Iwashi Mizu (Sardine Water, pun with Iwashimizu, Spring Water) // Prince of Tennis (OVA) 7 - Beach Volleyball *Coooophee (Stomach rotting powder, pun with coffee) // Prince of Tennis (OVA) 20 - Prince of Yakiniku *Kōra (Turtle Blood, pun with Cola) // Prince of Tennis (OVA) 20 - Prince of Yakiniku *Inui's Curse (Not actually an Inui Juice, but a Yakiniku sauce) // Prince of Tennis (OVA) 20 - Prince of Yakiniku Trivia *Like Tezuka, Inui is an only child. His parents are among the few of the Seigaku tennis team members that are barely mentioned in the series, contrasted with others such as Ryoma, Kawamura, or Fuji, who have had most of their family members introduced. *Inui's eyes are dark green in the anime and dark brown in the manga. In the anime, both of Inui's eyes are first seen in the short movie Atobe kara no Okurimono (Atobe's Gift in English). When Inui is jumping during one of the competitions held by Atobe in the festival, both of his eyes are revealed. Prior to that, only one of his eyes were shown in the anime series; during episode 168, which Inui's glasses were broken in a regulars match with Eiji Kikumaru. In the manga, we can see his eyes during the match against Renji Yanagi (Chapter 211 pgs 18-19), and we can see another picture of his eyes in the cover of his single "Distance". *In the Spanish dubbing for Animax channel in Latin America, due to the particular Spanish accents, his first name is pronounced "Sadaharu". (Most of the characters are called by their given names.) *In the TeniPuri Family chibi episodes Inui is the father of the family and can always be seen quoting data and statistics. He's also often beaten up by Oishi, who plays the mother of the family and has a rather volatile temper. *When Inui was doubles partners with Yanagi, he was called "Hakase" which means doctor. Category: Characters Category:Seigaku Tennis Club Member Category:Tennis Player